o John's other building and remodeling page    Ad: Educational Toys at LEGO - Shop at Home

"I think that I shall never see A poem as beautiful as a tree; A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed Against the earth's sweet-flowing breast; A tree that looks to God all day And lifts its leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in Summer wear A nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain, That intimately lives with rain; Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree." Joyce Kilmer.

Fine Tree house Building

click any image to view enlargement

View from northwest This tree house dates from the 1960's, but sat vacant and unused for years, until and we repaired and refurbished it in 1999-2000. It sits plop in the middle of an 80 year old magnolia tree on an otherwise vacant lot attached to and directly downhill from a fine old estate home in the Berkeley Hills. The access is easy now, we built a wooden stair stringer onto the slope above and where a 4 foot retaining wall crosses the slope about 8 feet uphill from the trunk (see photo to left) we (re)built a floor platform into the tree, which became both the *front porch* access and main floor level. It's mainly constucted from salvaged old-growth redwood decking, and old CDX plywood. The openings are mostly (plastic) screened, with one recycled wood window and a recycled door (cut to 5'6" tall) installed for security and wind break. Nature abhors a rectangle, and this natural tree house was built to the dictates of the tree, and too on the size and shape of available salvage.

click image to view enlargement

View from south - from uphill There are four vertical trunk sections that go through the roof and two smaller branches that pierce it as well. Waterproofing was a challenge, but was accomplshed by creating a double funnel effect (the top *funnel* is inverted, more of a pyramid flashing scheme) using skylight style curbs around the roof openings, flashing of sheet plastic, and duct tape to gently secure the flashing funnels around the tree. Note: the funnels are not in evidence in these photos, they were being replaced at the time of this photo.

click image to view enlargement

View from south, into left side Note that no fasteners were stuck in the tree. No bolts, no nails. There is one main beam that was placed horizontally in the central crotch of the tree. Another beam was laid crossways on that beam at the crotch support. Diagonal supports were fastened to the ends of the beams and cut flat and wedged down against the base of the trunk. The longest diagonal, a 4x8 redwood beam, abuts the trunk, runs diagonally upward and is side bolted to the end of the main beam and continues on to be bolted to the end of the central roof joist. With all the massive interlocking trunks, heavy timber beams; plywood floors, walls, and roof; and supporting diagonal braces, it's sturdy as a rock, even in the highest winds.

click image to view enlargement

Interior - View from sitting area to northeast corner - study area This treehouse is just under 120sf roof area, the local zoning code limit for an auxiliary structure. There are four discernable spaces within the treehouse: 1) a central walkway ~18sf that includes the space consumed by the four central trunks; 2) a 5'x 6' *bedroom* area just big enough for a custom made bed (3'10" x 5'6"); 3) a 4'x 7' elevated platform - cushioned play space with a built in TV at one end; and 4) a ~19sf study area with a 180 degree built-in desk and shelves. The ceiling is six feet high off the main floor. Only two small branches were removed.

click image to view enlargement

Interior - Northeast corner - study area Originally, this treehouse was designed with one or another of our children in mind. The bed was designed especially for our oldest daughter in 1993 when she was eight. The custom mattress is only 5'4" long. In 2000 she was too mature to enjoy a treehouse (but she helped paint it), and her younger siblings for one reason or another desired to stay indoors. The treehouse was abandoned to the devices of the Papa of the family, i.e. me. I gladly put it to use. I ran a phone line, tv cable, and heavy duty power cord, set up the computer my dad had given me, and went into creative delirium. It was perfect place to let the mind loose and the ideas flow. I indulged my fledgling hobby, creating websites, and eventually serving as volunteer webmaster for a local public access radio news show. For a couple years I even operated a small independent insurance adjusting business from the treehouse.

click image to view enlargement

Custom bed goes in SE corner of Treehouse - photographed sitting on display atop our pirate ship, The Good Ship Chain Chomp This bed was built in 1994 for our oldest daughter, then 9 years old. In constructing the treehouse, I started by building a platform large enough to accomodate this bed. It's called "Dolphin Dreams" and has a custom painted headboard, with spinning dolphin cutouts. It's my retirement fantasy, to open a shop in Hawaii, "Bob's Big Island Beds ," where tourist folk can custom paint a 1/4" thick wooden panel that I then ship to a local cabinet maker affiliate buddy on the mainland to fit into a headboard on a bed like this and deliver it to them when they get home.

click image to view enlargement

View of the treehouse from the *captains quarters* of our pirate ship the Chain Chomp This structure has been removed to Cragmont Elementary school as a gift to the garden department. It is a wonderfully creative space, shaped like a cross between a diamond and a triangle. Flat roof. Salvage timber construction with Simpson steel connectors for strength. Sturdy. Fun to be in. Notice the ceiling. When I build an outdoor space like this, I like to prepaint the underside of the roof plywood (i.e. the ceiling) and prepaint the ceiling joists (in this case flat-laid recycled full dimension fir 2x10s) so there's no masking required but you still get a crisp clean line. I like a light ceiling color (yellow here) with darker joists for an attractive contrast. These are rough timbers and plywood, but the effect is neat and pleasing (and easy to do).

click image to view enlargement

View of the interior south east of the Captains Quarters It's a delightful thing about the SF Bay Area, you really don't need to be inside much. You can spend your entire summer out of doors, it never gets too hot, there are few bugs, flies, or mosquitoes. Everyday from April to November seems like just anther day in Paradise. It rarely rains in those months, and in the other months, in winter, it never freezes, and there are lots of warmish days even in Janurary and February. For some reason, our son (8-9 years old) was inspired to set up action figures and trucks and bulldozers inside on the floor of the "captain's quarters" of this *pirate ship*, he named "The Chain Chomp" and create elaborate story lines that he got me to help him act out, even video and edit a couple of them. The rear wall is actually a pre-existing privacy fence (set back about 7' from the property line) that I built about four years previous. When I build structures like this I try and make them easy to take down and reassemble if needed, using bolts and screws where possible, rather than nails. The open roof area in this photo was a photo-op thing, the pirate ship was being disassembled to move it to the local elementary school garden. I gussied the bones up and took some good-bye photos. It was sad to lose this structure, it was so much fun to be creative in.

click image to view enlargement (End) view of Taj Mahal treehouse from the northeast This is the entry side, the north end of the structure. The little porch area was designed as a safety measure, a mid level stair landing, converted by the owners into a jumping off site, and now a rope climb. The curved tops of the window and door openings, and the vertical cut-outs in the plywood railings are designs all borrowed from the Taj Mahal in India. The floor area is about 80 sf, the roof about 100 sf. The west side of the enclosed structure, the ocean / sunset / Golden Gate Bridge view side, sits back exactly 3 feet from the property line, and accordingly has no window or other openings out of consideration to the downhill neighbor. Most of the weight of the structure is carried by one laminated redwood beam, made from 3-2x10s, which is carried by a matching laminated diagonal support. The north end of the horizontal beam is connected to the long tongue of a massive steel Simpson T-bracket, and the short side of the bracket is bolted to a 3 foot long piece of pressure treated 6x10 which locks through a fork in the trunk, preventing the beam from moving horizontally. The top of the diagonal beam is bolted to the horizontal beam and the bottom is fitted to the trunk and fastened with lags.

click image to view enlargement Interior view of this treehouse from the west end The tree is a magnolia again, a fine breed, a strong, attractive tree for building treehouses. Note that no tree trunks or limbs were cut or damaged in any way for or as a result of the construction of this tree house. Veiw the enlargement. See the odd twisting limb that runs through the middle of the structure, splits in three, two limb run vertically through the roof, and one through the west wall. None provide support (see above). And notice at the far rear left of photo, another small limb running through the wall at the corner. It's these quirky twists and turns that really made this fun to build and fun to be in.

click image to view enlargement

End view of this treehouse from the south Note the brass fireman's pole, accessible from a foot wide offset in the wood railing.

click image to view enlargement

Side view of this treehouse from the east / main house.

click image to view enlargement

Privacy Notice Site last updated ... February 7, 2009 Thanks to http://www.favicon.co.uk/ for the free favicon generator.